Childress et al. (2023) present the case of a patient with capacity who requests to stay on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) indefinitely and highlight the ethical challenges associated w...

In this paper I shall attempt to analyze some comparative aspects of modern societies which bear on the problem of convergence of modern, especially industrial, societies and the closely related analytical problems of the relations between culture and social structure.

Heterodoxy, sects and sectarianism seemingly belong to the sphere of religions; they obviously refer to doctrinal organizational and behavioral aspects of dissension within the frameworks of religions. It would, however, be wrong to think that their importance is confined only within such frameworks—broad and important as they are. The importance of heterodoxy and sectarianism is indeed much wider. It is much wider not only because the term sect has been often used—as Roger Caillois has demonstrated in his brilliant essay on (...) “L'Esprit des Sectes”—to refer to a much broader range of phenomena in the overall political and social order. The very possibility of using this term beyond its strictly religious connotation indicates that the developments of sectarianism, rooted as it is in the sphere of religion, are, potentially at least, of much broader implications.This was, of course, most clearly seen and elaborated by Max Weber who, in his classical essays on the comparative sociology of religions, was among the first to stress the place of dissent and heterodoxy, not only from the point of view of the doctrinal or organizational development of various religions, but from the broader point of view of the broader civilizational dynamics, of the innovative capacity of different civilizations. (shrink)

Argument invention is a method that can be used to help an arguer find arguments that could be used to prove a claim he needs to defend. The aim of this paper is to show how argumentation systems recently developed in artificial intelligence can be applied to the task of argument invention. One such system called Carneades is featured. Carneades can be used to analyze arguments, evaluate arguments, to make an argument diagram, and to construct arguments from a database. Using (...) some simple examples, the paper explains how Carneades works as a system of argument invention. (shrink)

Argument invention is a method that can be used to help an arguer find arguments that could be used to prove a claim he needs to defend. The aim of this paper is to show how argumentation systems recently developed in artificial intelligence can be applied to the task of argument invention. One such system called Carneades is featured. Carneades can be used to analyze arguments, evaluate arguments, to make an argument diagram, and to construct arguments from a database. Using (...) some simple examples, the paper explains how Carneades works as a system of argument invention. (shrink)

In their article in the September-October 2010 issue of IRB: Ethics & Human Research, Chris Kaposy and Françoise Baylis argue that the contraception policy of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s institutional review board fails to meet an ethically ideal standard in establishing the criteria investigators should follow when including women of childbearing potential in clinical research. In this response, we argue that the UNMC IRB’s policy is evidence-based and pragmatically oriented and that it therefore better safeguards women’s autonomy than (...) an ideal policy could. We also offer some of our experiences with the policy since it was implemented six years ago. (shrink)

How do educators better reach their students, better capture their attention and imagination without sacrificing scholarship? Teachable Moments: Essays on Experiential Education examines the pedagogy of Prescott College, a school that has embraced experiential education and been finding success with it for over thirty years. These essays—from scholars in fields as wide ranging as religious studies, environmental science, psychology, dance, literature, adventure education, and peace studies—examine the challenges and, ultimately, the rewards of student-centered education.

In this paper I will present conceptions of state reduction and particle and/or system localization which render these subjects fully compatible with the general requirements of a relativistic, i.e. Lorentz invariant, quantum theory. The approach consists of a systematic generalization of the concepts of initial data assignment at definite times, initiation and completion of measurements at definite times, and dynamical evolution as time dependence, to the concepts of initial data assignment on arbitrary space-like hyperplanes, initiation and completion of measurements on (...) arbitrary space-like hyperplanes, and dynamical evolution as space-like hyperplane dependence, respectively. I also briefly discuss the superluminal propagation which emerges from the localization study and the manner in which causal anomalies are nevertheless avoided. (shrink)

The Reeh-Schlieder theorem asserts the vacuum and certain other states to be spacelike superentangled relative to local fields. This motivates an inquiry into the physical status of various concepts of localization. It is argued that a covariant generalization of Newton-Wigner localization is a physically illuminating concept. When analyzed in terms of nonlocally covariant quantum fields, creating and annihilating quanta in Newton-Wigner localized states, the vacuum is seen to not possess the spacelike superentanglement that the Reeh-Schlieder theorem displays relative to local (...) fields, and to be locally empty as well as globally empty. Newton-Wigner localization is then shown to be physically interpretable in terms of a covariant generalization of the center of energy, the two localizations being identical if the system has no internal angular momentum. Finally, some of the counterintuitive features of Newton-Wigner localization are shown to have close analogues in classical special relativity. (shrink)

Through the explicit introduction of hyperplane dependence as a form of relativistic dynamical evolution, we construct a manifestly covariant description of a single positive energy particle interacting with any one of a large class of “moving” external potentials. In1+1 dimensions, the simplified mathematics allows us to display a number of general properties of solutions to the equations of motion for evolution on hyperplanes.

Because of the many criticisms of the notion of a theory independent observation language, it is useful to look at a few actual examples of scientific data to see what theories might be implicit and in what way. There are several possibilities. The theories could be previously accepted, under active investigation, or of a kind that has never been systematically examined. The present study explores these possibilities in the data of several scientific journal articles. The conclusion is that theories and (...) regularities of all three kinds can be found as antecedent conditions of data statements. Any descriptive account of scientific inference must find room for such presuppositions. (shrink)

This is the first of two papers responding to ‘recent’ commentary on various aspects of hyperplane dependence by several authors. In this paper I focus on the issues of the relations of HD to state reduction and unitary evolution. The authors who’s comments I address here are Maudlin and Myrvold. In the second paper of this set I focus on HD dynamical variables and localizable properties and measurements and address comments of de Koning, Halvorson, Clifton and Wallace. Each paper ends (...) with some reflections on the implications of HD for the ontology of Minkowski space-time. To set the stage for my responses, I begin this paper with some general position statements designed to correct what seem to be widespread and erroneous construals of some of my views. Two central points are argued for in this first paper. First, dynamical evolution occurs not only within foliations of Minkowski space-time. Rather the transition from the physical state of affairs on any one hyperplane to any other, whether the hyperplanes intersect or are parallel, is always an instance of dynamical evolution between them, generated by some active combination of boost-like transformations and/or time-like translations and/or state reductions and ‘reconstructions’. This point gives rise to a generalized conception of a history of dynamical evolution, allowing for the use of parameterized families of hyperplanes that multiply cover some portions of space-time. Nevertheless, and this is the second central point, for any two generalized histories, H and H’, the quantum states for a system on all the hyperplanes of H from the asymptotic past up to some hyperplane, h, determine the quantum states for the system on all the hyperplanes of H’ from the asymptotic past up to any hyperplane, h’, such that h’ lies to the past of all those state reduction regions that lie to the future of all hyperplanes of H that are ‘earlier’ than h. Consideration of these results should defuse concerns that have been voiced about the coherence and consistency of HD. A position closely related to the second point has already been argued for by Myrvold. (shrink)

Objectives: Bronchoalveolar lavage obtained at bronchoscopy is useful for research on pulmonary defence mechanisms. Bronchoscopy involves some discomfort and risk to subjects. We audited the process of consent, experienced adverse effects and reasons for participation among research bronchoscopy volunteers.Design: 100 consecutive volunteer research subjects attending for bronchoscopy, repeat bronchoscopy or routine recruitment clinic were interviewed. Information was gathered about volunteer motivation, perception of the consent process and adverse effects of bronchoscopy. Suggestions for improvement were requested. Responses were themed by a (...) second investigator prior to data analysis.Results: 81 bronchoscopy-experienced subjects and 19 new volunteers were interviewed. 19 subjects reported adverse symptoms during or after bronchoscopy, but no symptoms were of sufficient severity that they would not repeat the procedure. The frequency of symptoms was not related to gender, the quality of the lavage or the HIV status of the subject. 76 subjects reported that the information given pre-procedure was useful and adequate but 43 had further questions mostly relating to their own results. The reasons given for research participation were access to health assessment , access to treatment when ill , desire to participate in research and remuneration . 7 subjects complained that the remuneration was inadequate.Conclusions: The main incentive to participation in research bronchoscopy was access to healthcare. Informed consent and procedure technique were adequate but subjects would value more feedback about individual and project results. (shrink)

This is the second of two papers responding (somewhat belatedly) to ‘recent’ commentary on various aspects of hyperplane dependence (HD) by several authors. In this paper I focus on the issues of the general need for HD dynamical variables, the identification of physically meaningful localizable properties, the basis vectors representing such properties and the relationship between the concepts of ‘localizable within’ and ‘measureable within’. The authors responded to here are de Koning, Halvorson, Clifton and Wallace. In the first paper of (...) this set (Fleming 2003b) I focused on the issues of the relations of HD to state reduction and unitary evolution and addressed comments of Maudlin and Myrvold. The central conclusion argued for in this second paper (§§ 5, 7) is the non-existence of strictly localizable objects or measurement processes and the consequent undermining of the principle of universal microcausality. This contrasts with the existence of strictly localizable properties and results in the consequent priority of the concept of ‘localizable within’ over ‘measureable within’. The paper opens with discussions of the need for and status of HD dynamical variables which are responses to anonymous queries. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with the interpretation of velocity eigenstates for unstable quantons, their relationship to space-like momentum eigenstates for such quantons and the explanation of Shirokov’s contracting lifetimes for such velocity eigenstates. It is an elaboration of a portion of the authors earlier study.

The long established but infrequently discussed dependence of Lorentz boost generators on the presence and nature of interactions is reviewed in this tutorial note. The last third of the note presents a discussion of the covariant transformation and evolution equations for the non-conserved partial generators of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group for interacting subsystems.